I've really been enjoying listening to the new Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge in my vintage inspired audio system, with my classic Thorens TD-124 that was restored by Artisan Fidelity serving as the source, and my vintage custom Altec loudspeakers that were once owned by Leopold Stokowski, providing me with soul-stirring sound.
The new Ortofon SPU GTX S on the Thorens TD-124 turntable.
Custom vintage Altec loudspeakers.
It's hard to beat the combination of LPs, an Ortofon SPU GTX S MC cartridge, vacuum tube phono stage, exotic single-ended-triode (SET) amplification, and high-sensitivity vintage loudspeakers for an immersive and deeply moving musical experience.
I've really been impressed with the vintage-inspired music making ability of the new Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge. It gets the music right, playing back LPs with all the beauty, life, and drama that they most abundantly possess.
I really love classic hi-fi kit, and I see this newly released Ortofon SPU GTX S MC cartridge as a truly new, nuevo classic design, but with clever and notable innovations that will endear it to many hi-fi enthusiasts in the 21st Century.
HMV publicity photograph, showing the cellist Beatrice Harrison and the composer Edward Elgar recording his Cello Concerto at HMV's studios, using the acoustic recording process. Public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Before I tell you more about the details of this new 21st Century Ortofon SPU GTX S MC cartridge, I want to take you on a journey back in time to the latter part of the 19th Century, when new emerging technologies were taking the world by storm, with technologies like the telephone, typewriter, electric battery, steam locomotive, and audio & video recording were emerging and shaping the imagination of a new and modern society.
In the later part of the 19th century, audio got its start in the acoustic era of audio recording (1877 to 1925), and the silent film era had captured the imagination of the public (1890 to 1930).
"Charlie Chaplin, widely acclaimed as one of the most iconic actors of the silent era, c. 1919." Public domain photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
As these marvelous new technologies emerged and became popular with the public, during the time when Enrico Caruso was "the voice" of acoustic music recordings on 78rpm records, and Charlie Chaplin was "the face" of the silent film industry, there were visionaries who were thinking about how to take those two technologies - voice & film - and merge them together.
In 1918 two Danish engineers - Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen - envisioned a future where those two technological marvels would be combined, or synchronized, and founded the Electrical Phono Film Company - which would later become the Ortofon we know today - to research this possibility.
Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen.
By 1923 Axel Petersen and Arnold Poulsen's vision of combining synchronized sound & film recording was realized, when the first experimental film with synchronized recorded sound was shown at the Palace Theatre in Copenhagen, and the names of Petersen & Poulsen for this innovation were credited on the film strip.
The first commercially successful type of electrical phonograph pickup was introduced in 1925 at the start of the electrical era of recording. As time progressed through the electrical era of recording (1925 to 1945) and into the monaural magnetic era of recording (1945 to 1957), the performance of sound recording had evolved beyond the performance of the available phonograph cartridges.
In 1918 Petersen & Poulsen had founded the Electrical Phono Film Company, but as recording technology continued to advance, the name of the company was changed to FonoFilm Industry A/S, and in 1947 Ortofon A/S was founded under the FonoFilm Industry umbrella.
The name "Ortofon" was created from the contraction of two Greek words "orto" and "fon," which meant "correct sound".
In 1948, in response to the need for higher-fidelity phonograph cartridges that could realize the full potential of monaural magnetic recording, Ortofon's Holger Christian Arentzen introduced the world's first moving-coil phonograph cartridge, the Mono-A.
The Ortofon "Mono-A" was the first moving-coil phonograph cartridge. Photo courtesy of Ortofon.
The Ortofon Mono-A moving-coil phonograph cartridge was a tremendous advancement in sound quality during the monaural magnetic era, and featured a fixed magnet and a moving coil, which generated sound by converting mechanical vibrations from the record groove into electrical signals.
In 1957 sound recording once again advanced during the stereo period of the magnetic recording era (1957 to 1975). The higher-fidelity stereo recordings meant that a new stereo phonograph cartridge was needed to realize their full potential.
The first stereo pick-up (SPU). Photo courtesy of Ortofon.
In response, Ortofon's monaural moving-coil phonograph cartridge technology was updated to stereo, and the first stereo pick-up (SPU) was released in 1959 so that the higher-fidelity performance of these new stereo recordings could be realized by recording industry professionals and home listeners.
Audio technology hasn't stood still, and in response Ortofon continued to incorporate materials advancements into their moving-coil phonograph cartridges. Stronger magnets made from samarium cobalt and neodymium reduced the size of magnetic circuits and increased cartridge output. New thin cantilever rods made from hard materials like sapphire, boron, and ruby were incorporated. The availability of high-purity Japanese copper and silver wires allowed new state-of-art moving-coils. A new wood-powder resin material was used to make SPU housings.
The new Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge.
Which brings us back to the newly released Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge which combines classic and modern design elements.
The GTX incorporates high-performance technology that has stood the test of time, like Alnico magnets, high-purity copper moving-coils, and an aluminum cantilever, just like in my SPU Classic.
My Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII.
So what's new technology-wise in the Ortofon SPU GTX, you ask?
Well that would be the new SPU housing with an internal step-up transformer.
I asked Ortofon's Louis Dorio if he could tell us a little more about these new features in the SPU GTX.
"The new glass-fiber reinforced polymer was chosen to reduce the overall mass and to make the walls of the housing a little thinner - this is owing to the size and weight of the transformer that has to live inside. Of course this presents some unique challenges, because the housing material has an influence on the sound. We settled on this material because it gave the right level of involvement in the sound. It has to be just right - not too much, not too little.
"The transformer was another interesting challenge on its own - there were a lot of experiments to optimize the performance of the transformer given the limited real estate it has in the shell. We opted for permalloy core material, despite trying the amorphous material (it didn't provide the right sound in this application) that we use in our Lundahl-based ST-70 transformer. There was also the challenge of shielding the transformer, as we had to balance the need for shielding properties with the thickness of the material that could fit here.
"The brochure from our seldom-seen 1994 SPU Classic GT/GTE models."
"The major driving force behind the development of the GTX series was request from the market, especially the Japanese market. It's a big part of our heritage - the original GT came out in 1959 and was discontinued in 1979. The next one was available in 1994 and lasted about 10 years. So the GTX is really a third generation product, and we feel that it's the finest example of that.
The new Ortofon SPU GTX S on the Thorens TD-124 turntable.
"Also, as far as internal construction of the motor unit and stylus, this is the same as our SPU #1 series. As you can probably tell, there's a certain magic to having a custom-built transformer designed around the SPU motor."
I think of the Ortofon SPU GTX as a nuevo classic design, whose origins can be traced back to the first Ortofon SPU moving-coil cartridges.
Custom vintage Altec loudspeakers.
Well, I've been absolutely blown away by the performance of the Ortofon GTX S MC phonograph cartridge in my vintage-inspired audio system, and I love that it has its own custom designed step-up transformer inside the housing.
The music sounded so good in terms of fidelity with this combination of equipment, that it made the Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings 4 LP box set that I was listening to a few evenings ago come alive in a vivid and dramatic way.
Liquid melodic flow, natural tonality, transparent & resolving, dynamic, dramatic in delivering tons of emotional impact from the music, is my initial assessment of the Ortofon GTX S MC phonograph cartridge.
While my vintage-inspired audio system is truly excellent at playing music, it was immediately apparent that the new Ortofon SPU GTX S MC phonograph cartridge was a winner, and substantially upped this system's performance over my the phonograph cartridge I was using in this system.
I love the performance of this new Ortofon SPU GTX S MC phonograph cartridge. I'm very impressed. I'm only partway through the 30 hour bedding-in time, but after things get a little further along, I'll do a deeper dive into what I'm hearing from it for you.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the Ortofon SPU GTX S MC phonograph cartridge is remarkably affordable for being a combination of a high-performing moving-coil phonograph cartridge plus a step-up transformer. HERE.
The new Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge.
Much more to come about the new Ortofon GTX S MC phonograph cartridge!
Previous articles in this series:
Today's Fresh Catch: The New Ortofon SPU GTX S moving-coil phonograph cartridge! HERE.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
